Qum to Esfahan

The ride today is from Qum to Esfahan. The ride itself was just hot and pretty boring as we road through desert region with small mountains surrounding. Temps were in the high 30’s.

We came across another tragic vehicle crash today with a car that had left the road at high speed and cartwheeled across the desert. This has become an all to common event seeing major crashes in Iran and makes us all to aware of our vulnerability being on bikes. We pushed on and made Esfahan around 3.00pm.

The two cities could not have been any different, with Qum being considered the most conservative Iranian city while Esfahan was what we considered the most beautiful with well manicured flora along streets and it was clear the locals cared about their town.

We pulled up at a fast food restaurant in order to grab a drink and bite to eat and it was not long before 3 school girls approached Steve while is was out checking a hotel out. It was a funny site upon my return seeing Steve as the centre of attention of the girls who were  keen to practice their English speaking skills. The girls asked to take a “selfy” with us and then departed.

Once we orangised ourselves in the hotel it was off for a walk to check out the several spectacular bridges crossing the river in Esfahan. The down side was that the water was no longer flowing due to a recent dam that had been built upstream effectively stopping the water flow of what was clearly a spectacular river previously.

After the river walk it was off to see a lovely palace located in the centre of town. Iranian tourists were plenty with horse rides being offered around the square made for a very energetic scene.

The  evening ended with making our way back to the hotel after a very long walk ready to head for Kerman tomorrow.